Fortressa

Questions & Answers

How is Fortressa different from the usual commercial VPN providers?

enables anyone to create their own VPN, providing more control and stronger privacy

thinks VPNs should be disposable: you can create and destroy multiple VPNs at will

works on all your devices without having to install custom software

is based on the most secure VPN protocols, encryption, and configuration

uses public VPN provisioning source code that anyone can review

Why doesn’t everyone create their own VPN?

Building your own VPN is an arduous, painstaking endeavor. Even experienced systems administrators are loathe to try because it’s easy to mess up and hard to do properly. Up until now, there’s been no easy way for ordinary people to even contemplate it.

What are some of the problems when using most commercial VPN providers?

Traditional commercial VPN providers are associated with some serious problems:

potentially slower speeds, since hundreds or thousands of other people may be sharing the same VPN

all of your Internet activity is completely visible to these providers — in real time

if a traditional VPN provider is hacked, an attacker can eavesdrop on all the activity of all of that provider’s customers

too easy to identify traffic as coming from a VPN provider, which could result in your activity being throttled or even blocked entirely

What are the benefits to having your own private VPN?

The private VPN that Fortressa builds for you has a number of benefits:

take full advantage of your VPN server since it’s used only by you and your friends/family/team

your activity is less likely to be blocked or throttled since traffic is harder to identify as coming from a VPN

Who are you, and why did you create Fortressa?

My name is Justin Mayer, and I write and speak at conferences about security and privacy.

As you may already be aware, the last year has not been a good one for Internet security and privacy. Among the havoc wrought, net neutrality in the United States has been summarily revoked, allowing Internet service providers to slow down Internet speeds unless both consumers and Internet companies fork over more money. Even worse, Internet service providers are now allowed to monitor your Internet activity, record it, store it until the heat-death of the universe, and sell your data to the highest bidder.

This theft, extortion, and gross violation of your privacy should make you angry. I know I am.

That’s why I decided to do something about it.

Why should I trust Fortressa?

There are some people who believe the only way you can trust a VPN is to download an open-source project, review all the code, fire up your terminal console, provision a server, use the script to configure your VPN, and maintain your server on a long-term basis as system administrator.

The reality is that we make reasoned trust choices every day. I trust, for example, that Apple hasn’t built backdoors into my Mac and iPhone.

The good news: you don’t need to trust Fortressa, since it uses publicly-reviewed, open-source software to provision your server. Trust simply isn’t necessary here — you are welcome to log into your server at any point to verify for yourself.

Will my Fortressa VPN allow me to be completely anonymous?

Your VPN will improve the security and privacy of your Internet activity. It will not hide your identity from three-letter agencies or other determined state actors. Nor is that the intention.